In a white paper, Silverpop, sums up 5 expert tips and tactics for email marketing success. Email marketing is evolving and in a multi-channel marketing environment and the paper offers advice regarding the use of social and mobile as well.
Let’s take a look at the five tips offered in the whitepaper so you can optimize your email marketing strategy as well.
1 – Use social and mobile to drive opt-ins for email programs
Social and mobile can help you attract new subscribers to your email list. Make it easy for them to sign up from places such as your Facebook page. Keep the initial signup process short form too.
I love the fact that Silverpop understands the nature of the relationship between the reader and the author is different online. In the whitepaper they urge marketers to create personality in their emails and offer these tips:
- Cultivating a personal, reader-oriented approach (use “you” far more often than “I” or “we”)
- Assuming a tone that reflects natural speech (read your copy out loud as you proof it)
- Using humor and irreverence as appropriate
- Putting a face on your message—an editor or executive from your company, or even a fictitious character or amalgamation
- Remembering that email is a conversation between you and your subscribers, and fostering a two-way dialogue by asking for their comments and feedback
2 – Enhance your preference centre to give customers control
You do have one right? Preference centres help increase relevance and reduce list churn, leading to email marketing success.
The multi-channel world means this will become more and more important as people will expect to be able to easily tell you when, what and how often they want to interact with you.
Silverpop suggests your preference centre include the following basics:
- Email Address Change
- Frequency
- Channel
- Interest/Preferences
- Format
- List Preferences
3 – Minimize list churn and inactivity in the early stages of the relationship
The first 30 days of your relationship with the subscriber are extremely important for email marketing success!
Welcome, “early warning tracks” and triggered email programs are key factors for your success. A well crafted automated welcome series of emails can reduce unsubscribes, spam complaints and inactivity.
A few tips:
- Begin with a branded “From” name and a personalized message with a welcoming subject line launched immediately after opt-in. This helps you build inbox recognition even before you send your first marketing message.
- Use this message to confirm subscription details, restate the email program’s value proposition, ask to be added to the address book, invite them back to fill out a profile, redeem an incentive if appropriate, and provide contact information.
- Follow up with a timed series of emails that show subscribers more of what you’re about. You might discuss certain features of your service or website, highlight popular articles or products, or even provide a survey to see how they like you so far.
- Monitor subscriber activity closely in the critical first 30 days for fall-off or failure to engage. Move those who register no activity into an early warning track, using surveys, invitations to create or update preferences, or incentives to engage them before they become unrecoverable.
4 – Incorporate personalized dynamic content into emails
User product reviews and user input in general is powerful content for your email marketing campaigns! Encouraging people to submit their reviews and suggestions and then using this content in your messaging, can be very effective. This content can be dynamically pulled from a database and added to an email.
Some tips:
- Send an email one or two weeks after a purchase and ask for a review. A great opportunity here to show you care about your customer’s input by asking them how they like their purchase and if they have any suggestions!
- Once the review is live, send a thank you and include a link to the review
- Make sure the reviews are easy to share across multiple channels
- Consider rewarding your most active reviewers too
5 – Marketing Automation
Automation offers marketers the opportunity to connect more often and more effectively with their subscribers.
Marketing automation means you can create highly personalized campaigns based on a subscriber’s behaviour and actions. This behaviour and actions can come from their interactions via email and other channels.
